What Murderbot Teaches Us About Being Human: Martha Wells at Worldcon 2025

By Jeremy Clift, author of Born in Space and Space Vault

This August, as writers and fans from around the world gather in Seattle for the 2025 World Science Fiction Convention (known as WorldCon 2025), one name will loom large: Martha Wells, Guest of Honor and creator of the unforgettable Murderbot Diaries. It’s a fitting moment—not just for her, but for science fiction itself. Because if anyone exemplifies where the genre is headed, it’s Murderbot. And if anyone’s earned their place at the center of that conversation, it’s Wells.

Wells reading to a group of rescue bots.

Like many readers, I first picked up All Systems Red expecting a clever twist on the rogue AI trope. What I got was something far more intimate

and far more powerful. Murderbot isn’t just an android with a hacked governor module. It’s a fully realized character with anxiety, sarcasm, trauma, and a deep yearning for autonomy. It’s also, at times, hilariously relatable. Who hasn’t wanted to shut out the world and binge a comforting show while everything burns in the background?

But the brilliance of Wells’s work is more than the character voice. It’s the precision of her world-building, the emotional clarity of her prose, and the way she weaves themes of control, consent, and selfhood into fast-paced, action-driven plots. In a genre long dominated by grand cosmic battles and omniscient narrators, Wells brings us back to the human, or post-human, scale.

A Career Built on Persistence and Craft

It’s worth remembering that the Texas-born Martha Wells didn’t emerge fully formed with a bestselling series. Her career spans decades and genres, from the Books of the Raksura to The Death of the Necromancer.

She’s written fantasy, media tie-ins, and YA, always with a deep respect for character interiority and narrative elegance. The Murderbot Diaries may have launched her into the wider spotlight, but that success was built on years of quiet mastery and world-class storytelling.

There’s a lesson in that for writers like me, and perhaps for the genre as a whole. Speculative fiction isn’t just about the next big idea. It’s about the emotional resonance, the inner voice, and the ability to bring even the most unhuman characters achingly close.

Why Her Work Feels So Timely

Seattle, the host city of this year’s World Science Fiction Convention, is a place where technology and ethics collide daily. From the booming AI sector to debates over privacy and surveillance, it’s a fitting setting to honor a writer whose central character wrestles—literally—with questions of control and freedom.

Murderbot’s struggle to define itself outside of corporate mandates and scripted behavior reflects anxieties many of us feel in a world that increasingly automates not just labor, but identity. Yet Wells, who is 61 on September 1, handles it all with nuance, humor, and unexpected warmth. That’s a rare gift, and it’s one that science fiction needs more than ever.

Looking Ahead at Worldcon

As I prepare to bring my own Sci-Fi Galaxy series to Worldcon this August 13–17, I’m genuinely excited to see Martha Wells take the stage. Not just because she’s a brilliant writer (she is), but because she represents something even more vital: a shift toward stories that care.

Stories that ask what happens after the revolution, when the hero just wants to be left alone—but still chooses to act.

If you're attending, don’t miss her panels. And if you haven’t yet met Murderbot, it might be time to deactivate your social protocols and dive in. Please also drop by my stand and say Hi! You might win a stuffed toy octopus.

— Jeremy Clift, author of Born in Space  and Space Vault: The Seed Eclipse.  Read Clift’s profile on Kirkus.